ROME, April 30, 2004 (LifeSiteNews.com) – As recorded by a large number of the world’s media, the Vatican’s leading prelate on the Sacraments, Cardinal Francis Arinze, declared unequivocally last week that unambiguously pro-abortion politicians should be denied Holy Communion. Arinze said such a politician “is not fit” to receive Communion. “If they should not receive, then they should not be given,” he said.
However, in an interview with the National Catholic Reporter (NCR), Washington Cardinal Theodore McCarrick attempted to deny Cardinal Arinze’s statements meant what he said and what everyone has understood they meant. NCR’s John Allen asked Cardinal McCarrick, “Last week, Cardinal Francis Arinze, prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, said that a politician who is unambiguously pro-abortion should be denied Communion. Is he right?” McCarrick responded, “I don’t think it was his eminence’s official opinion. I did speak to the cardinal while I was here in Rome, and I think the cardinal would say that what he wanted to say is what was in the document. In it, it’s clear as the church has always taught that to receive Communion you have to have the proper disposition, you have to be in communion with the church, and not conscious of serious sin … all those things that are part of our teaching. That’s in the document. Then, his official statement that was part of what he read is that all these documents present general norms that the bishops of a country have to put into practice. When he reported to me what had happened, this was not something that he reported as an official or even a personal statement, whatever he might personally believe, and whatever I may even personally believe. The cardinal’s position was that this is the teaching of the church, and the bishops of the United States should figure out what they ought to do.” Allen retorted, “He did say clearly that a politician with a pro-abortion position should be denied Communion.” Cardinal McCarrick said again, “I think that what the cardinal is saying that if someone has taken an unambiguous position that is contrary to the teaching of the church, and recognizes this as such, he should take himself away, he should not receive Communion. I think that’s what his eminence wanted to say.” Apart from attempting to strip words from the mouth of the Vatican Cardinal, Cardinal McCarrick also failed to note that the Vatican’s document he refers to as embodying what Cardinal Arinze “wanted to say” also makes reference to canon law 915 which in turn says that those “who obstinately persist in manifest grave sin, are not to be admitted to Holy Communion.” Pro-life leaders were shocked and dismayed at Cardinal McCarrick’s disturbing distortions, seeing them as apparently politically motivated. Jim Hughes, National President of Campaign Life Coalition Canada and vice-president of International Right to Life, told LifeSiteNews.com, “I find it appalling that he is abdicating his responsibility and refusing to stand up against the rampant evils in society and besides, since when did Cardinal McCarrick become Cardinal Arinze’s press spokesman. God deliver us from small ‘p’ political prelates.” Also in response to Cardinal McCarrick’s statements, Judie Brown, President of American Life League told LifeSiteNews.com, “That’s a crock, there is nothing else to say other than that he has a very poor understanding of canon law. He’s playing politics with the body of Christ. I cannot believe every bishop isn’t rushing to try to protect the body of Christ from sacrilege instead of trying to do nothing.” See related LifeSite coverage: Vatican Cardinal Arinze Says Pro-Abortion Politicians Must be Denied Holy Communion https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2004/apr/04042301.html See the full Vatican document: https://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/ccdds/documents/rc_con_ccdds_doc_20040423_redemptionis-sacramentum_en.html
See the interview with Cardinal McCarrick from NCR: https://nationalcatholicreporter.org/update/mccarrick.htm